India’s Serum Institute (SII) and Bharat Biotech have lowered prices on their Covid-19 vaccines as the country plans to offer booster doses to all adults starting Sunday.
The cost of SII’s Covishield will drop to 225 rupees ($2.96) per 600 rupees dose for private hospitals, Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla said in a tweet on Saturday.
“After discussion with the central government, the SII decided to review the price of the Covisield vaccine for private hospitals,” he said.
Infections in India have dropped to the lowest level in nearly two years, with 1,150 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, with 83 deaths. The death toll in the country since the beginning of the pandemic is 521,656.
SII, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, produces AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine under the Covishield brand.
Of the 1.85 billion doses of vaccine that India provided to its population of 1.35 billion people, 82% were Covishield.
Bharat Biotech has reduced the price of its Covaxin vaccine to 225 rupees per 1,200 rupee dose, company president Suchitra Ella said in a tweet.
Those over 18 who received a second dose nine months ago will be eligible for the additional “precautionary” dose, the Health Ministry said on Friday.
The booster program, which began in January, is limited to frontline workers and the elderly and has so far administered 24 million doses.
When the program is extended on Sunday, those outside the two priority categories will have to pay for vaccines at private facilities, with no mixing and matching of vaccines allowed.
Source: CNN Brasil
